On Saturday we ran our first points series' race for the new season. This year we decided to run a Vintage LM class, consisting from sports and prototypes cars that raced in the sixties and seventies. We run 20min races on our club track, a 4 lane Ninco layout, as usual. Turnout was promising, as 18 drivers showed up, so we formed 5 heats this time. The rules where again not the same for the faster and the more experienced racers. For the newcomers it was pretty much an open class, with the only limitation being the use of the slot it 21.5k orange motor and the use of F series tires. Older guys, could use the same combination, but if running slot it cars, they where restricted to running P series tires (any from P1 to P6), black offset pods, teal endbell 19k motors and no suspension on their cars. For this race, no 'old dog' chose a slot it car, so they had the option to use the orange motor, and the F tires. And we formed a very interesting grid after all.

Heat 1 was an all slot it battle:George Damato, Giannis Fokianos, Stelios Prineas, George Zourbanos

Heat 2 had a bit of a Racer and Fly flavor:Sotiris, Alexis, Vassilis and Maria

Well, this set of rules produced a very exciting race after all. At the end of the first 5mins, the top 8 where within 2 laps. At the end of the second run, 5 racers where battling for the top 3 being in 2 laps distance from the top. Even the winner was decided on the last minutes of the final run.At the beginning, it was Petros with the sloter Ferrari 312, followed by Dimitris in the black 512 and Timos with the blue Lola T290. But Kosta Nikolaou and Giannis Fokianos with the orange Slot it Ferraris as well as Maria with the red n86 identical car where in the same lap. Vasilis was not too far behind with the Porsche 906. After 10 mins, Kostas Nikolaou was still tied with the top 3, Maria and Giannis where a little behind and Vasilis started having tire problems that resulted to a very bouncy car. The 4 drivers stayed almost together until the end, where Petros faced some serious tire trouble and lost 2 laps. Dimitris was flawless and grabbed the top spot. Kostas stayed very close and finished the top4, winning the newcomer trophy as well!! Maria followed, some laps ahead of Vasilis who managed to overtake Giannis Fokianos, when a bad run on the outside lane, cost Giannis about 5 laps.

After the race, a brief tech inspection was performed on the top 4 finishers, and all 4 cars where open to the others to see. Take a look, fairly simple after all:

Kostas' car:

Petros' car:

Timos' car:

Dimitris' car:

So, the first race is over and the winners took their places in the podium:

Next championship race is on 19th of March, stay tuned.

PS: Something interesting All cars faced tire wear, since most people used the extra soft F15 compound, but both sloter cars face extreme and uneven tire wear, and a great variation on their performance as tire wear progressed. Extreme graining, tire marbles stuck on the tires and not going off, bouncy cars resulted low traction and a great difference between left and right tires. Is it possilble that the lack of suspension and the chassis that is too stiff, to be the causes of these handling issues? It could be. Further testing will show...